MR examinations of the spine were reviewed in 25 patients with a clinical diagnosis of tethered spinal cord. In 21 patients (84%), the level of the tip of the conus was below the mid L2 vertebral body. The causes of the tethering were spinal lipomas (72%), tight filum terminale syndrome (12%), diastematomyelia (8%), and myelomeningocele (8%). These entities were readily identified in all instan...

The author reviews the clinical and pathological features of sacral agenesis, with emphasis on the resulting neurologic deficits and the association in many cases with maternal diabetes mellitus. The demonstrated wide spectrum genetic defects are reviewed in the context of molecular genetic regulation of ontogenesis of bony and neural spinal structures. Differential diagnosis from meningomyeloc...

Background: Split Spinal cord Malformation (SSCM) is a form of spinal dysraphism in which any or all of the spinal cord, cauda equina, and filum terminale are divided by a bony or fibrous spur. There are two described types of SSCM, namely Types I and II. In Type I SSCM, there are separate hemi-cords contained in two dural sacs, separated by a bony spur; in Type II SSCM, there is a single dural...

Eight of the 22 patients had spina bifida aperta, and 14 had spina bifida occulta. These included eight cases with repaired myelomeningocele, seven with an intraspinal lipoma and tethering of cord , three with dermal sinuses, and one with diastematomyelia. Bulging and low signal intensity of the nucleus pulposus on T2-weighted images are the criteria for disk degeneration [1 , 2] . In our study...

BACKGROUND Though several studies have reported the incidence of intraspinal neural axis abnormalities in infantile and juvenile "presumed idiopathic" scoliosis, there has been a varying prevalence ranging from 11.1 to 26.0% based on a limited sample size. Therefore, such inconclusive findings have resulted in some questions on the MRI-associated role in the management of these patients. We aim...